[WWYC] Self-Spotting in WAE

ke9r at ke9r.com ke9r at ke9r.com
Mon Sep 15 10:09:44 EDT 2003


I appreciate your for posting things in a very factual way, both here
and on cq-contest Fabian, very well done.

I won't exactly speak to the idea of self spotting, or whether it's
legal, or what it exactly implies, but I will speak to the idea of
having fun in a contest.

Most of us do not operate from world class stations. This means that
we hone our skills, determined, year after year, while slowly building
our stations; or we get frustrated, get burnt out, and quit; or perhaps,
we pad our small stations a bit by cheating. I am confident that most
of us lie in the former two. Actually, I'm positive almost -all- of us
lie in the former two.

This is just to say, that contesting must be internally driven. You must
want to get better, you must actually like it. There have been times when
I've thought to myself, "I really, honestly, don't want to go operate that
contest." I used to do it anyway, pounding out a score, comparing it on
3830, getting frustrated. Now if I don't want to operate a contest I
will not. I only operate when it's fresh, when it's new, when I really
get excited doing it. This means that I always am happy to be on. When
I'm QRM'd or my frequency is stolen I think it's amusing and I move on.
When my rate is below 30hr I'll go up, have supper, collect myself.
While this will not produce a world class operator tomorrow, it will
produce operator that stay around for 30 or 40 years, turning out
thousands of contacts year after year.

An internally driven contester simply does not cheat. He has no reason
to do so. He's having fun, he sees SO2R not as a way to squeeze out
one more mult and crush competition, but to get one more mult, smile,
and have a load of fun along the way.

We had a ball of fun in NAQP and Sprint, not with huge scores. Our scores
were nothing to write NCJ about, but we really shined and we made friends.
Everyone that left that contest wanted to come back, not because they were
only 50q's, 3 mults from #1, but becuase they were #104 and realized this
is one hell of a fun hobby.

As someone who had a fairly nice setup, got burnt out, went QRT for two
years and is slowly coming back please take my advice and HAVE FUN. That
is what this is about. Winning CQWW SOAB HP will not get you a pleasant
wife and a nice house, or loads of money and fame. It will actually suck
tons of your money, tons of your time, and reduce your chances of being
exposed to that shinny happy to-be wife. So just smile, step back, relax,
and realize that theres tons of us here doing the same exact thing with
you. That is what WWYC is about.

73 Greg/KE9R
ke9r.com


On Sun, 14 Sep 2003, Fabian Kurz wrote:

> Date: Sun, 14 Sep 2003 23:45:33 +0100
> From: Fabian Kurz <lists at telegraphy.de>
> To: wwyc at contesting.com
> Subject: [WWYC] Self-Spotting in WAE
>
> Hello YCers, Hello proud lids,
>
> I found it most annoying to see spots like these
>
> Sep 14 DX de
> AI1G-@:     3789.0  CQ0T         WAE                            0423Z
> Sep 14 DX de
> K2EFV-@:   21271.0  CQ0T         WAE                            1555Z
> Sep 13 DX de OZ1HPS-@:  21295.3  4L6AM        WAE
> TEST                       0937Z
>
> in the WAE-Contest. Yes, it's both WWYCers spotted, I am a member of WWYC,
> too, so why should I dislike these spots? Well, as you can see from the
> "-@", these spots have been entered at the
> oh2aq.kolumbus.com-Internet-DX-cluster. Still nothing wrong with that, but
> looking at the originating IPs, these spots can easily be prooved to be
> self-spots:
>
> The first spot, by "AI1L" was submitted by 193.126.128.219 which is from
> Portugal.
>
> Whois-Lookup:
> [...]
> inetnum:      193.126.128.0 - 193.126.191.255
> netname:      KQPT-IOL-DIALUP
> descr:        KPNQwest Portugal / IOL ISP
> country:      PT
> [...]
>
> Second, by "K2EFV" was submitted by 194.65.14.75:
> [...]
> inetnum:      194.65.0.0 - 194.65.255.255
> netname:      PT-TELEPAC-960515
> descr:        Provider Local Registry
> descr:        Telepac - Comunicacoes Interactivas, SA
> country:      PT
> [...]
>
> Both calls are not issued (qrz.com lookup).
>
> Same with 4L6AM's spot by "OZ1HPS", originating from 62.168.189.31.
> [...]
> inetnum:      62.168.160.0 - 62.168.191.255
> netname:      GE-CN-20030212
> descr:        Caucasus Network Ltd.
> descr:        PROVIDER LOCAL REGISTRY
> country:      GE
> [...]
>
> One cannot prove that these spots were actually submitted by the operators
> of CQ0T and 4L6AM, but there's no reason not to belive so.
>
> Self-Spotting is not explicitly forbidden in the contest-rules, but using
> fake-callsigns like this is clearly a case of unsportsmanship conduct,
> therefore a reason for disqualification.
>
> I don't write this because I want CQ0T and 4L6AM to be disqualified! I want
> them to realise that this is very poor operating-technique, highly unfair,
> and that might lead to the WWYC to appear in bad light. Good operators
> don't need self-spotting! We don't need it!
>
> Just learn a lesson from KE9R & co. (http://www.ke9r.com/lids_start_young/)
> - They (well, I shan't exclude myself) -- have just the right attitude:
>
> Quote:
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Did we win?
>          -- NO WAY
> Do we care?
>          -- NO WAY
> Did we rock things, have fun, and blow each other out of the chair?
>          -- HELL YES
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Contesting ought to be fun in the first place! If you are determined to win
> a contest, go for it, but impress your opponents with good operating
> skills, not with advanced internet-cheating technology!
>
> I think we have built up a lot in WWYC in the last years. Not only do we
> have surpassed the number 300 members now, we also gained a certain
> reputation in the HAM-, especially contesting-community. Let's not
> jeopardise it by the stupidity of cheating for the gain of just a fistfull
> additional QSOs (if at all). It's not worth it!
>
> GO WWYC!
>
> (Factual) Discussion encouraged!
>
> 73, Fabian DJ1YFK (maybe being a lid, but not cheating!)
>
>
>
>
>
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> WWYC at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/wwyc
>



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